Oxnard Firm Expands Far East Business

An Oxnard engineering firm that specializes in designing manufacturing plants is expanding briskly in Asia and throughout the Pacific Rim--areas where business is far healthier than in California, the company’s president says.

In its latest deal, IPC Systems Engineering Inc. has signed a contract to do the engineering on a $35-million tuna cannery in the Federated States of Micronesia.

The facility will be the first major tuna cannery built from the ground up in the past 20 years, said Charles S. Bonzagni, IPC’s president and chief executive. The project, which will produce revenues of more than $2 million for IPC, is one of several in which the company is involved in Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Bonzagni said he is winding up negotiations to design a plant in China that will produce laminate materials for printed electronic circuit boards. Another project, in India, also involves material used in circuit boards, he added.

“We also have contracts to do systems studies in Indonesia and Korea, and several other projects in Asia and the Pacific Rim should begin in the next six months,” Bonzagni said. “Right now, that’s where our growth is. In contrast to California, business is expanding in those areas.”

Domestically, Bonzagni said IPC now has projects in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Sacramento and Modesto counties, but he declined to give details about those jobs.

IPC, founded in 1979, now has a staff of 30. Because of its recent growth, the company has added several employees this year and expects to add 10 to 15 more within three months, Bonzagni noted.